Why Whypipo?

Social media Blacktivists stay trying to avoid getting banned from platforms. Facebook is the primary offender in the post to prison pipeline. I think someone at Facebook woke up one morning and thought, “School to prison pipeline? Let’s get in on that prison industrial complex good stuff! Let’s make a way for there to be a post to prison pipeline! That way we’re just like all the other old timey robber barons. The symbolism is rich!” See this article supporting this claim.

Think about it. Facebook’s entire revenue stream is based upon gathering data from you, the user. So, when they put you in Facebook jail or demand proof of your government name, what exactly are they getting? Sensitive data and your silence.

Wait, you say, what does this have to do with Whypipo? It has to do with the fact that People Of African Descent have been using coded language since 1619 to obfuscate and confound Whypipo. Some brilliant Twitter user began using the phrase Wypipo and it caught on. I distinctly remember hopping up from my computer, laughing and clapping my hands the first time I saw it.

Now, my more erudite and scholarly friends can do (have done) treatises and extensively footnoted texts explaining the history of various derogatory names for crackers and honkies. I’m gonna stay in my lane and leave that to the scholars. For me Wypipo, (Realize I am now speaking as a lone and solitary individual Black person and not on behalf of that extensive monolithic group “Black people” many imagine exist.) For me Wypipo was the first time we had a word which had the equivalent weight of nigger. Furthermore, it was the first time that a single word existed which differentiated between “good White people” and you know, those other kind. It came with an implied #NotAll.

As I used it gleefully and with a liberated abandon, something nagged at me. It lacked a certain specificity. Upon much deliberation, I realized it was missing that all so necessary H. Whypipo, Whyperson, Whychildren, Whywomen, Whymen. That H helped me further distinguish between the #NotAlls and … well you know … the willful, obstreperous, belligerent, immoveable, lazy, (often violent and sociopathic) scumbag kind of White person.

The H, the magical H captured the entire energy of those people. Because they can never stop asking why Black people should be afforded any tiny crumb of recognition of our humanity in the form of … well, basically… being allowed to Live While Black. Those people are unlike my very studious and industrious White friends who say “please,” “thank you,” “ I’ll go read that, ” “I just learned something,” “I’ll change my behavior,” “I’ll tend to my people,” “I’ll interrupt oppression when I see it,” “Now, I understand I need to confront my privilege.” “Thanks for calling me in, I am grateful you saw me turning into a Whyperson and cared enough to stop me.” “I would like to become #Humyn.”

Whypipo just want to stay asking why. They can’t imagine why we need…. ummm …. to be allowed to safely live. And in their callousness lose any hope of being humyn. Whypipo keep us asking why they are considered people.